After winning Super Bowl 48 this past Sunday, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is on clouds nine, ten, and eleven. The Seahawks dominated the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl 48 to win their first Super Bowl Championship in franchise history. Along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Seahawks entered the National Football League in 1976 and they suffered through the woes of being an expansion team early. But by 1983 the Seahawks had become a contender and unfortunately for their sake the Los Angeles Raiders stopped them in the AFC Championship Game that season. From 1989-1998 the Seahawks were unable to navigate towards the playoffs as they once again became a part of the also-rans in the National Football League. In 1999, Mike Holmgren was hired as the Seahawks head coach and by 2005 he led Seattle to their first Super Bowl appearance. Following a record of 97-19 in nine seasons as the head coach of the University of Southern California, Carroll took over as the Seahawks head coach in 2010. While at USC, Carroll recruited heavily while developing depth at every position for “The Men of Troy” who dominated the Pac-10 Conference.
When Seahawks general manager John Scheneider hired Carroll it was looked at by many as an afterthought. USC was about to be hit with heavy sanctions by the NCAA and Carroll looked like a man that was simply jumping ship.
Prior to taking over at USC, Carroll was an NFL head coach for four seasons with the New York Jets and the New England Patriots respectively. In those four seasons Carroll compiled a record of 33-31. After being fired by both the Jets and Patriots, Carroll achieved tremendous success at USC, but his pundits simply viewed him as a man that could not cut it in the pros.
In four seasons with the Seahawks, Carroll has a record of 38-26 with three playoff appearances, two NFC Western Division Titles, and of course now a Super Bowl Championship.
As soon as Carroll took over in 2010, he began a complete overhaul to the Seahawks roster which is something that we saw him do at USC. Carroll came on board at USC in 2001 and the team finished that season with a record of 6-6. By 2002, USC was back on the national scene as they finished the year with a record of 11-2 which was capped off with an Orange Bowl victory. Carroll only went 7-9 in his first season with the Seahawks, but the team was able to win the NFC West. By Carroll’s third season in Seattle, the Seahawks had become legitimate Super Bowl contenders as they gave the Atlanta Falcons all that they could handle before bowing out in the 2012 NFC Divisional Playoffs.
Carroll’s tenure at USC can be reflected upon with this Seahawks team as 14 players currently on the Seahawks roster are from Pac-12 schools. But aside from having some former Pac-12 players currently on this Seahawks roster, Carroll has brought the same vibe to the pros that he had in college. Even at the ripe age of 62, Carroll is extremely enthusiastic and energetic which feeds off on his team. When the Seahawks are on defense they always tend to gang tackle which is something that you always saw with USC. The Seahawks can run the football effectively with running back Marshawn Lynch who had 1,257 rushing yards this season. When Carroll was at USC they were “Tailback U” as they produced the likes of Reggie Bush and LenDale White.
Aside from the energy and enthusiasm, the thing that has made the Seahawks winners this past season is that one player is not above the team. The Seahawks do not rely on quarterback Russell Wilson to be a prolific passer; but rather an efficient one. In the past regular season Wilson passed for 3,357 yards which was 16th in the NFL. Of those 15 quarterbacks that passed for more yardage than Wilson only six of them made the playoffs. This past season Wilson only had two games in which he passed for more than 300 yards which was a stark contrast from Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning who had 12 games this season in which he passed for more than 300 yards en route to establishing a new single-season NFL record of 5,477 passing yards. In Super Bowl 48, Wilson was an efficient 18-for-25 passing with 206 yards and a pair of touchdown passes while converting on several key third downs in the first quarter that allowed the Seahawks to extend their lead. If Manning doesn’t have his best game which was the case in Super Bowl 48, the Broncos are not the same team.
Every man on the Seahawks roster from Wilson to the gunners on punt coverage are a cog in the wheel that makes this team go. From his first day with the Seahawks, Carroll established competition at every position. The same way that the Seahawks practice is the way that they play. If the Seahawks wide receivers can deal with cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Kam Chancellor in practice then they can navigate their way through any secondary in the NFL. This Seahawks team is a real-life version of Clubber Lang as they are young, hungry, and ready to knock off anyone that comes in their path. Sherman and Chancellor were fifth round selections while wide receiver Doug Baldwin and the Super Bowl Bowl MVP in Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith was a seventh round pick. Wilson was a third-round pick in the NFL Draft by the Seahawks as teams shied away from him due to the fact that he is only 5’11” tall.
You can call Carroll and the Seahawks whatever you want to refer to them as. The Seahawks are brash and arrogant while they don’t have a problem telling you about it. More importantly the Seahawks are now champions of the NFL led by a head coach that people said couldn’t get it done in the pro football; a quarterback that people deemed to small and a band of brothers on defense that were low round picks. Instead of people in America calling the Seahawks villains they should honor them because they are living the American dream as people told them they couldn’t achieve greatness and they did.
Source: Pro-football-reference.com
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